


mountain of comfort

by watergator



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:46:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21759283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: mikey takes a sick day
Comments: 1
Kudos: 69





	mountain of comfort

Leo stares at the thermometer with an impatient glare. He can feel the space between the brows crease in concentration as he waits, toes tapping at the floor beneath his feet, lip worried and chewed between teeth before—

“105,” he reads when the little digital numbers flash up in blue.

His eyes flicker upwards to the boy sat across from him on the breakfast bar stool, slumped over, clad in his baggy pyjama shirt and his blonde curls an unruly mess atop his head. He’s pouting at him, like a kicked puppy, almost begging him with just his face alone.

Leo sighs, shifting his weight from one leg to another and he looks at the stick again for confirmation. It reads the same number as it did just ten seconds ago.

“Mikey, there’s no way you’re going to school today,” he tells him. “Not with a fever like that.”

Mikey pushes himself off the bar with a whine. He’s about to protest; opening his mouth ready to spout out whatever excuse he can find to prove to his brother that he’s fine, or that the thermometer is just wonky and broken, when he’s caught off guard by a vicious cough.

It wracks his body, his little frame trembles with it as he brings a fist to his mouth to cover himself as he coughs and splutters again, sounding chesty and painful.

Leo winces at the sound of it. 

Mikey clears his throat once the fit has passed and tries to give him a normal and steady look.

Leo quirks a brow at him.

“I’m fine,” the youngest brother tries to convince him, his voice sounding both nasally and raspy at the same time - the epitome of sickness. “It’s just the flu.”

Leo shakes his head and turns towards the tap where he switches the hot water on. It takes a moment to work. A chug and a small shake before any water comes out. He sticks his finger underneath as he waits for it to warm up.

“Exactly. It is just the flu,” Leo tells him, craning his neck half way around to talk to him. “But knowing you and your immune system nothing is ever just a cold or ever just the flu.”

He hears his brother give a frustrated sigh and another little cough. 

“Leo,” he starts, voice high and pitchy but Leo already starts talking before he has a chance to catch a breath.

“Mikey, one day indoors won’t kill you,” he says, the water not hot enough to wash off the thermometer. He’s chucking it back into the drawer where he turns around to face him.

He’s giving Leo the most foul look, almost as if he’s committed some heinous crime by simply letting him have a day off school, something most fourteen year olds would be glad about.

“But Leo,” Mikey groans again, voice croaky and tired sounding. “You don’t  _ get  _ me.”

Leo snorts a laugh. “That, you’re right about. I have no clue as to why you’re even standing here arguing the point when you have the perfect opportunity to jump right back into bed!”

Just then a door across the apartment opens, and a pair of heavy footsteps sounds across the room.

Raph then suddenly appears, stopping at the end of the breakfast bar as if his brain had made him walk here on auto pilot. His face is sullen and moody looking and he stands there in just his old and rotten looking T-shirt and pants. He scratches at his armpit in such a gross boyish manner that it has Leo wrinkling his nose as his incompetence for such human decency.

“Who’s going back to bed?” He yawns.

“Mikey is,” he tells him even though he’s sure he’s too tired to even engage in human interaction right now. “Go. Now,” he reminds him.

Mikey pouts again. Leo simply shakes his head.

Raph has clearly given no notice to his sick younger brother or the little argument that’s going on as he moves sluggishly around them, grabbing himself a spoon and the cereal.

He makes a mess as he pours out the milk, letting it spill onto the countertop.

Leo tuts. “Raph, can you not go for one moment without making such a mess you big goon.”

Raph doesn’t seem to take notice of the milk nor the insult as he simply grunts before shivering his cereal into his gob like some machine.

Leo clears up the mess just as Donnie enters the room.

Of course, he’s already dressed, looking like an actual alive person unlike the two youngest and Leo barely has time to say good morning before Donnie is already sprouting out what a stressful day he has ahead of him.

_ So that’s why he’s up so early already _ , Leo thinks as he throws the wet, soggy, milk induced paper towels in the bin.

“I have a chemistry test first thing and I  _ know _ I studied everything but I just feel so worried about it,” he stares rambling.

Raph just grunts again, as if it’s some confirmation that he’s still there in the room with them as if anybody might have forgotten. Mikey has hopped back onto the stool, resting his head onto the breakfast bar with a heavy sigh as he lets Donnie carry on.

Leo already starts making his toast, knowing he’s too caught up in his own head to even remember to make himself eat. He’ll make Mikey some soup later on, maybe some nice bread rolls to go along with it since he’s feeling good today.

With the toast buttered and toasted to the degree in the right way he likes it, he’s sliding the plate to Donnie who grabs at it and takes a bite, letting himself breathe for once as he swallows down his food.

He’s seemed to have calmed down once his breakfast is finished, like some gremlin that needs food to keep himself sane again after starting to derail a little. He pushes a stray strand of hair out of his face before he looks at Leo and gives him a tight lipped smile.

“I’m gonna go study before I leave for school,” he tells him already itching to get away. “Y’know,” he shrugs, “just in case.”

Leo nods and with that, Donnie is already gone, leaving just the three brothers in the kitchen together.

Raph is scooping up milk in his spoon and up into his mouth where it misses and dribbles down his chin.

He grabs the hem of his shirt and wipes at it.

“Raph.” Leo reprimands him as he drops the bottom of his shirt and looks at Leo with a confused frown.

“You’re like a giant ape, go get ready for school please.”

It’s lucky it’s early as Raph once again lets the jab slide, too tired to even care. He scrapes back his chair rather obnoxiously loud and stomps out of the room.

Leo rolls his eyes, watching him return to his room where he’s sure he’ll stall for another ten minutes and leave getting ready to let the last few moments of the morning before they leave.

Still. He can’t expect much from Raph; a creature of habit. A creature of  _ bad  _ habits.

Leo looks at where Mikey is slumped over in his seat. He lets out a heavy and deep sigh. Mikey doesn’t even so much as flinch.

“Mike,” he says softly, reaching over and running his fingers through messy and tangled curls. 

Mikey makes a strangled sounding grunt of acknowledgement. 

“Get to bed,” Leo tells him in a gentle voice. “I’ll make you soup and you can watch a movie.”

Mikey manages to actually lift his head off the bar and look up at him through big, round eyes. It’s not until he’s properly looking at him that Leo notices the little purple rings that are faded into his pale skin underneath his eyes, and it makes Leo wonder how ill his youngest brother had been and for how long; how well had he been able to hide it until it was starting to become impossible.

“Can I at least sleep on the sofa? Watch a movie in there?” He asks. He’s batting his lashes rather comically and it makes Leo snort a little laugh from his nose.

It makes Mikey laugh.

“Alright. But you have to sleep at some point,” he says, gently ruffling his curls before retracting his hand away. “Got it?”

Mikey smiles and lifts himself up. “Got it,” he croaks.

*

He ends up in a nest of blankets and pillows and bed covers on the sofa, so much so that he’s practically drowning in comfort, and when Leo walks into the room he almost misses him laying there if it weren’t for the tuft of blonde poking up from one of the patchwork quilts he has thrown over him.

There’s a movie playing on the telly, but his eyes are unfocused and lids are drooping. Leo watches as he tries so desperately to concentrate on the screen but it seems his brain is too tiredand fried to even try.

Leo walks right into his field of vision and Mikey doesn’t even seem to notice as he blinks hazily up at him.

“Hey bud,” he says. “How’re you feeling?”

Mikey blinks a few times as if to wake himself up before he forces a grin across his face. It’s strained and wobbly.

“M’fine,” he tells him, voice slurry and tired sounding. Leo only scoffs.

“You don’t sound fine,” he says. “Or look it either.”

Mikey groans, his voice cracks and fades as he buries his head into one of the million mountain he has surrounding him.

“Maybe try and get some rest, hm? Some sleep will do you good.”

Mikey groans again, this time muffled by the pillow he has his face squished up against.

He says something incoherent that Leo can’t quite make out.

He frowns. “What?”

Mikey pulls his face away from the pillow to look at Leo through narrowed eyes, as if the inconvenience of simple human conversation is sucking his very soul from him.

“I said,” Mikey says slowly, “I’m not tired.”

With that, he lets out a long yawn.

Leo laughs, head tilting head back a little before looking back at Mikey who’s shooting him an agitated look.

“Really?” Leo says, an incredulous look washes over him. “Because I’d beg to differ.”

Mikey lets out a little sigh, letting his head hit the pillow again. This fine his eyes flutter shut as they’ve let slip of the final grasp of energy they had.

Leo hums as he watches Mikey slowly start to slip into a more comfortable sleep. It’s then that there’s a little pitter patter of paws coming across the floorboards that Leo looks down.

The fuzzy orange, white and brown coloured cat comes strolling across the room. She looks up at Leo with a lazy grin, probably from where she’d been curled up in a laundry basket snoozing the better half of the morning away.

She spots Mikey, as well as the giant bundle of blankets and hops up to join him. Even in a half sleepy daze, Mikey lifts a hand and feels around blindly for her.

“Ick?” He croaks, fingers stretch out until the find soft fur and Ick is leaning in to his touch. Leo smiles as he watches her push her head into his palm.

“Get some rest,” Leo whispers just Ick finds the perfect spot nestled in the crook of Mikey’s elbow. He pats at her head absentmindedly as she purs something content and happy.

Mikey hums too, eyes still shut, and eventually his breathing evens out; shallow and slow and it makes Leo feel at ease.

He’ll probably spend the rest of the day going through the box of paperwork he’s putting off. Bills and forms and such are pestering him and he knows now is the best time to get them done, even if he really doesn’t want to.

Because as Mikey sleep and his cat snuggles in impossibly closer to him as he sleeps away a fever, today will end and tomorrow will start. 

And all will be well again. 

**Author's Note:**

> a very special fic for a very special someone <3
> 
> happy birthday katie, i hope your day is as brilliant as you are!!
> 
> thank you for encouraging me to write all those years ago, i wouldn't be half the person i am today without you in my life. thank you for being a super amazing best friend and thank you for being born so i could write you this fic (and make me realise how much i miss these boys!) 
> 
> ily, hbd bud - have a good one and have a slice of pizza on me lol


End file.
